A rough path
by Japaneese.sushi.queen
Summary: Rose and Scorpius could be making better choices. She shouldn't be racking up injuries quite so quickly, and he probably shouldn't be screaming at her parents in the middle of St. Mungo's. Even if he is a Healer.
1. Chapter 1

Rose never would have admitted it to anyone except her boyfriend and _maybe_ her cousin Albus, but family Saturdays at the Burrow were really one of her favourite ways to spend her time. She hadn't properly appreciated them when she was younger, but now that they were significantly less frequent, she was grateful for them. She rarely got to see most of her aunts and uncles outside of them, and she often found it difficult to coordinate her schedule with that of most of her cousins, even the ones she considered herself close to.

She saw Albus on a regular basis because he was Albus. She saw Lucy because they shared a flat on the outskirts of Northern London. And she saw Victoire and James at work.

And often, for weeks at a time, that was it. Lily was still at Hogwarts, along with Rose's brother Hugo. Roxanne was busy with her budding Quidditch career, Fred was working to expand the joke shop, and Dominique was simply too busy.

And she rarely saw the others outside of family gatherings at all.

Even when she was just sitting alone by the window in her grandparents' living room, watching Fred bewitch snowballs to pelt Molly in the back of the head no matter what direction she was looking in, there was a sense of togetherness that she could never seem to find anywhere else.

There was just something about being in her grandparents' house that made any other problems she had melt away.

"Hey." She looked up just as Albus dropped onto the window seat across from her. His nose was still red from being outside, and there were flakes of snow clinging to his dark red hair. "Watching Fred?" She nodded, and he grinned broadly. "She's going to hex him to next Friday soon."

"I don't doubt it." She cocked her head to the side. "How have you been? I haven't seen you much in the last couple weeks."

His smile faded, and he slouched against the wall behind him. "The Aurors decided I was ready to move onto occlumency training, and it's a nightmare. I'm rubbish at it, and sometimes they have Bridget practise her legilimency on _me."_ He made a disgusted face, and Rose refrained from pointing out that wanting to keep his not-quite-girlfriend out of his mind should be good incentive; she knew Albus didn't work that way. "That's always _fun._ Then after work, it's always, 'Al, you never told me that-'" He broke off and sighed. "Anyway. That's why you haven't seen me. How's the D.C.B.?"

She shrugged. "Oh, you know. I've got a couple of nicks and bruises, but they've still got me on a tight leash - they haven't let me near anything more interesting than a grindylow." He didn't look very sympathetic, and she supposed she couldn't blame him; when she'd joined the Dangerous Creatures Bureau, they'd told her she'd have four months of training and that once she'd completed that, they would ease her into real field work. They'd kept their word; it was January, and she suspected they'd boost her up to a real XXXX creature in a matter of weeks.

Albus, on the other hand, had to go through another two and a half years of training to be a fully-fledged Auror, and he couldn't expect to go into the field until his third year of training.

He was beginning to look a little annoyed, so Rose directed her gaze across the room and changed the subject. "Remember when those two hated each other?" she asked.

Her cousin followed her line of vision to where his brother was sitting with her boyfriend. From the animated hand gestures and occasional loud exclamations, they had to be talking about either Quidditch or Healing. Ever since his first trip to St. Mungo's since joining the D.C.B. the year before, James had developed a keen interest in Healing.

"Well, I don't have the patience to _do_ it," he'd said when she teased him about quitting the Ministry and starting in on Healer training instead. "I just think it's interesting. I mean, they can really repair the human body. It makes me a lot less nervous about being reckless!"

Given how little concern James had _ever_ showed for his safety, Rose was still a little worried about what "a lot less nervous" meant.

Albus snorted as he slouched against the wall and rested his feet on her seat. "Yeah, well, _you_ used to hate him, too."

Rose made a face. "Shut up." Just as she was about to look away from them, Scorpius glanced up. When he saw her eyes on him, he grinned at her. She smiled back and blew him a kiss, and his grin turned into a smirk as he looked back at James.

"You know, I thought he'd get over being pleased with himself for going out with you eventually," Albus remarked offhandedly. She glanced over at him; he was looking out the window again. Molly had finally tired of Fred's antics and had her wand out, and Fred was dodging her jinxes with only limited success. One of his feet had swelled to be about as big as a pumpkin, and his hair was bright purple. "It's been more than three years, though, and he still hasn't really gotten over it."

"Well, I'm pretty great." Rose put her feet up next to him. "Can you blame him?"

Albus rolled his eyes. "Yes. Yes, I can. Unlike my best friend, _I_ can see how obnoxious you are."

"Oh, he does, don't worry." Rose glanced back out the window. Fred had several bright spots on his cheek, but he appeared to have rallied; Molly was now struggling to stop laughing long enough to perform to countercharm. "He just forgives me for it."

"How've things been between you and Scorpius?" Albus asked. "I've barely talked to him, either. I'm turning into a hermit."

Rose suspected that this might have at least as much to do with his girl issues as his training, but she'd long since learned not to press Albus too much on the topic. He'd talk when he was ready to.

"Good. Or, I think it is, anyway. It's hard to be sure with him sometimes."

Albus sighed. "He's just a little worried about you starting to do fieldwork. He knows how often D.C.B. members are in and out of St. Mungo's, and it's hard for him to think about his boss interrupting his day to tell him that you've been carted in there."

Rose had been trying very hard not to think about that; it was a conversation that both she and Scorpius had been pointedly avoiding, though she knew that as a Healer trainee it was definitely starting to weigh on him. There wasn't really much she could do about it, though, other than try to keep herself out of St. Mungo's in the first place.

"I know." She winked at Albus. "But I make it worth his while."

Albus recoiled. "Ew." He changed the subject, and inwardly, she heaved a sigh of relief that she'd managed to deflect the conversation for a little longer.

Rose was good at avoiding things she didn't want to deal with. According to Albus, it would catch up with her eventually, but she doubted that: it was her experience that when you avoided problems for long enough, they just went away.

Dinner was predictably good; she had the chance to catch up with Louis, who she'd always gotten on quite well with but hadn't really had the opportunity to talk to much lately. Scorpius seemed to have retreated back to Albus, which she supposed wasn't very surprising; this was the first Weasley family Saturday he'd been to, and he was clearly still a little uncomfortable. The fact that he'd gravitated toward James earlier in the day as a familiar presence was progress in and of itself - they'd gotten along better in Hogwarts after Rose had started going out with Scorpius, but they'd certainly never been what she would call close.

James was clearly preferable compared to the rest of her cousins, however, most of whom Scorpius didn't know very well at all.

By the time they finished dinner, she could tell by the way he was fidgeting that he'd clearly had enough. As Teddy and her grandmother took charge of the dishes and everyone else began to file back into the living room, she grabbed his hand and said in an undertone, "Do you want to get going?" The relief was clear on his face, and she kissed his cheek. "Just let me say goodbye."

"Goodbye" took about twenty minutes, and by the time they stepped out of the house, the sky had grown dark.

"It's pretty, isn't it?" she asked, looking up at the sky.

"Mm." He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on hers. It still felt a little strange - he'd been about her height for most of their relationship, but toward the end of their seventh year he'd had an unexpected growth spurt that left him about sixteen centimetres taller than she was. "Do you want to go home or come back to my place?"

She felt a smile spread across her face. "You're not tired of the Weasley clan yet?"

"Not you." He kissed the top of her head. "So?"

Rose twisted around and stood on her tiptoes to brush her lips against his. "I'd love to go back to your place."

In the dim light cast by the glow from the windows, she could see a sparkle in Scorpius's grey eyes. "Oh, good." He took her hand and turned on his heel, and when she opened her eyes, they were standing in front of the door to his flat.

He let go of her hand to pull out his wand. He tapped the lock and muttered something under his breath, and after a moment, they heard the deadbolt sliding back. He pushed the door open and she followed him in, pushing it closed behind her. The locks reengaged as they made their way into the living room, where he collapsed onto his couch.

She paused in the doorway to watch him. The light in the hallway had flickered on when they'd walked in, and he pointed his wand at another orb on the wall before tossing it onto the table. The orb began to glow, and he looked over at her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She smiled when he shifted uncomfortably. "What? I'm not allowed to admire my boyfriend?"

He snorted. "Admire me from over here." He patted the cushion next to him. "If you're over there, I can't touch you." She raised her eyebrows, and he made a face. "You know what I mean."

She made her way across the room and settled next to him. "Thanks for coming," she said as she snuggled up to him and put her head on his chest.

He wrapped an arm around her and began to run his fingers through her bright red curls. "It was fun. I mean, I felt a little awkward, but it was still fun." Rose closed her eyes and inhaled his scent. Just as she was beginning to doze off, he cleared his throat. "Hey, Rose?"

"Mm?"

He hesitated for moment. "Would you go to something like that with my family?"

"Sure," she said sleepily. Her eyes were starting to drift shut, and she had no desire to move. "I like the Greengrasses."

He didn't respond for a minute, and her contentedness started to slip away. "Not my mum's family," he said finally. "My dad's."

She jerked back to stare at him. He looked serious, which she supposed made some sense - it was hardly something to joke about. "Your dad doesn't have much family," she said quickly, though from the way his jaw was set, she knew he wouldn't let her get away with the deflection.

Not this time.

"That's not the point."

She inched back from him a little and drew her knees up to her chest. "Your grandfather was a Death Eater," she hissed.

"So was my father."

Rose snorted. "And as you've pointed out about fifty times in the last few years, that's different."

And it was different. Rose had met Scorpius's parents. To her slight surprise, she'd even found that she liked Scorpius's parents. His mother was a bit more friendly and his father more reticent, but even so, she'd never felt anything but welcome by them.

But his grandparents were different.

She could see how Scorpius's father could have changed. He was still in school when You-Know-Who took over, and at least as far as she knew, he'd never actually done anything _really_ bad. In fact, from a few things Scorpius had said over the years, Rose really wondered what exactly he'd had done _to_ him.

Scorpius's grandfather, on the other hand, had definitely done a lot of terrible things in the wars. Rose was fairly certain he'd murdered people. She _knew_ he'd used the Imperius Curse on his own son - Scorpius had told her that, back when they'd first started going out. The only reason Lucius Malfoy wasn't in Azkaban was that Scorpius's grandmother had helped the Order in the Battle of Hogwarts. He might well be a decent grandfather to his pureblood grandson, but somehow she had a feeling that he'd be less decent to the halfblood who could potentially pollute the family's lineage.

"I know," Scorpius said. "But he's still my grandfather."

Rose snorted. "Right. And I'm sure he's so eager to meet me. I'm diluting his family's blood, remember?"

Scorpius let his head fall back back to rest on the couch. "Rose, I wouldn't-" She raised her eyebrows when he glanced over at her, and he sighed. "Look, if he said anything to you, we'd leave and I wouldn't speak to him again."

She didn't challenge him on that. She didn't doubt that what he was saying was true.

But it also wasn't the point, and in some ways, the idea that the meeting could destroy Scorpius's relationship with his grandfather made her want to meet the man even less.

"I can't." His eyes met hers, and despite the hurt look in his eyes, she didn't falter. "Scorpius, I can't."

He closed his eyes, and she felt a quick stab of guilt. "How about just my grandmother?" She could barely hear his voice.

"Your grandmother?"

He lifted his head and looked at her. "Yeah. Just my grandmother." She hesitated. "We can meet her for lunch somewhere. You won't even have to go to the manor."

"I don't know."

Scorpius clearly saw her ambivalence as the perfect opening, because he added quickly, "Rose, please. Just once. If it doesn't go well, I won't bring it up again."

She considered him. "Liar," she said after a moment.

The corner of his mouth twitched, and he pushed his blonde hair back from his face. "Fine. I'll give it at least six months." His expression grew serious again. "And if she brings up your blood, I won't ever mention it again. But I know she won't."

"Why not?"

"Because my grandmother loves me, and she's not an idiot. She knows how pissed off I'd be if she did, and anyway, she's been pushing to meet you for years. She'll make an effort."

Rose sighed and looked away from him. "I'll think about it."

He slung his legs off the couch and scooted over to put his arm around her shoulders. "Thank you." He kissed her forehead.

"I didn't say yes," she reminded him as he began to run his fingers through her hair.

"I know," he murmured. He put his other hand underneath her chin, and she allowed him to lift her head. "I love you."

Rose felt her trepidation begin to melt away. "I love you, too." She wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed him to pull her into his lap. "You're a good boyfriend," she said, brushing her lips against his.

He smiled. "I know," he repeated. His grip on her tightened, and he leaned down to kiss her. When they broke away for air, he added, "You're not so bad yourself."

She snorted and rested her head on his chest again. "Why is it so important to you?" she asked.

He didn't have to ask what she meant. "Because they're my family. I know they've done a lot of awful things, but they're still my family." When she didn't respond, he pointed out, "I've met _all_ of your family. I've even met your Muggle grandparents."

"My grandparents didn't do _anything-"_

"I didn't say that they did." His tone was still calm. "My point is just that I've made the effort, and not everyone in your family has made me feel welcome."

He didn't mention Roxanne by name, but Rose knew that he was thinking of her in particular. Roxanne had many positive traits, and Rose loved her dearly, but it was true that she still treated Scorpius with a suspicion that wasn't really warranted or fair. Rose suspected that it mostly had to do with the fact that Scorpius had been in Slytherin in school; Roxanne had always disliked all Slytherins on principle, and despite Scorpius's longstanding friendship with Albus and his relationship with Rose, Roxanne couldn't quite get over her suspicion.

Rose sighed. "I'll think about it," she said again. "I just... Scorpius, do you know what he _did?_ He went after people like my family - hell, he probably went after my family - and did..." She trailed off. "Maybe Roxanne's been a bit of a jerk, but it doesn't compare."

"I know." He sighed, too. "I _know._ You know I had my own little crisis when I found out about some of the terrible things he's done. That's why I haven't pushed it. But they're still... I just..."

"I'll think about it," she repeated. She considered pointing out that she was pretty sure he'd promised never to ask her to meet them, but decided against it; things had changed since then. "I promise."

He exhaled heavily. "Thank you."

**thanks for reading ! please leave your reviews in the review box :)**


	2. Chapter 2

By the time Rose left his flat the next day, Scorpius Malfoy was in a fairly good mood.

His first Saturday with most of the Weasley clan had gone okay, for the most part, and if he'd stuck a little closer to the few Weasleys he felt comfortable with than maybe had been entirely necessary, he didn't think anyone would fault him for it. And, at any rate, he was pretty sure he deserved some credit for extending that comfort zone to include James Potter - he'd never have believed it at the beginning of his O.W.L. year, but James really wasn't half bad.

Even if he had developed an annoying habit in Scorpius's fifth and sixth years of jinxing his hair to turn interesting colors about once a month.

And, even better, when he'd broached the idea of meeting his father's parents to Rose, she hadn't refused out of hand - and Scorpius knew his girlfriend well enough to know that that meant she was genuinely considering it. Rose didn't really have the self-control to dissemble in that way, which was one of the things that Scorpius really liked about her.

He wasn't surprised that she was still drawing the line at so much as stepping foot inside his grandparents' house or talking to his grandfather - he couldn't blame her, really - but he felt optimistic about his grandmother. She'd been bothering him about meeting Rose for a long, long time, and while his grandfather hadn't been able to keep himself from slipping a few times when Rose had come up in conversation, his grandmother never had.

He glanced at the old wooden clock on the wall of his bedroom; he'd unearthed it from one of the many rooms in his grandparents' manor that wasn't really used anymore. It was late enough that he was pretty sure the Potter boys would be awake, and he could use a word with Albus about how best to approach Rose about this whole Narcissa Malfoy thing.

The Potters were indeed awake when he got to the flat they shared, but they clearly hadn't been up for long; the apartment still smelled vaguely of bacon and eggs, which Scorpius assumed James had made - Albus was a horrible cook - and it was clear that neither boy had touched his hair since going to bed the night before.

Still, they were more than happy to let him in.

"So, how do you feel like it went?" Albus asked when they'd settled onto the slightly threadbare couch. Scorpius was pretty sure that both Albus's parents and Rose's parents had more than enough money to help their children pay for their own flats and halfway decent furniture, but they seemed to feel that some adversity built character, and none of them could afford to live in a city as expensive as London on first and second year Ministry salaries.

Scorpius couldn't afford his flat on a first year Healer's salary, either, of course, but neither his nor his cousin Noah's parents seemed to subscribe to quite the same opinions on adversity and monetary support that the Weasleys did. Scorpius could see some value in the way his friends' parents did things, but all the same, he was quite happy that his parents took the perspective that it was vulgar for someone of his background to have to do something quite so crass as pay _rent,_ so they'd just bought him the flat. Some traditions died hard - his father had been perfectly capable of ridding himself of a lot of the blood purity prejudices that he'd championed in his youth, but apparently, pride in their social class was another matter.

"I dunno. Okay, I guess. What do you think?"

To his slight surprise, James threw himself into one of the chairs - which was in slightly better shape, though one of the arms had been singed since the last time Scorpius had been there. "It went fine," he said. "You're a natural. They'll be asking you over for afternoon tea all on your own any day now."

Over the years, Scorpius had become much better at interpreting James's sarcasm, so it was nowhere near as off-putting and confusing as it had once been. "I'm sure," he said, matching the older boy's tone. "I bet next they'll start telling me to bring my dad with me, because that'd go so well."

The older boy grinned. "No, seriously, Scorpius, it was fine. They said you'd seemed very nice when you left. We didn't correct them."

Albus - who wasn't even trying to hold back his smile at how well they were getting along - nudged Scorpius with his foot. "Scorpius, it really _was_ fine. They're hoping you come back, so they can get to know you better."

"Oh." He considered this. "Good. I think."

Albus rested his head on his hand. His dark red hair was still sticking out to the other side, but at least it looked slightly more intentional now. "So, did you ask Rose about your grandparents?"

"Yeah. She said she'd think about it." James cleared his throat - he hadn't been there during Scorpius's previous conversations with Albus on the subject - and Scorpius said, "I asked Rose to meet my father's parents."

When he looked over at James, the dark-haired boy's eyebrows had flown up. "Scorpius, no offense, but your grandfather was kind of a death eater. A real one, not a baby one like your dad."

"My grandmother," Scorpius said. "Just my grandmother."

James considered that. "Okay, I guess that's less fucked up. She wasn't a death eater, right?"

"No!"

Albus was studying his best friend. "Good call," he said after a long pause. "Your grandfather might just be a lost cause, and honestly, I think it's probably better that way. The couple times I've met him, he definitely made me feel a little uncomfortable, and _I'm_ not any threat to your family's blood purity. If you stay with Rose, it's all over - any future Malfoys will not be purebloods."

"He did? You think that's why he wants to meet her - to, to sabotage us?"

Albus shrugged. "Yeah, a little - he made me feel uncomfortable, I mean. I don't think it was intentional, he just got this weird look on his face every time he looked at me. I doubt that's why he _wants_ to meet Rose, but I don't think he'll necessarily be able to keep his feelings to himself. Your grandmother has fewer feelings, I think, and I bet she _can_ keep them to herself."

Scorpius shifted uncomfortably. "You really think they don't like Rose? On principle?"

"I… honestly?" Scorpius nodded. "I'm not sure I'd go quite that far, but I think they'd both have been a lot happier if you'd found some nice pureblooded girl to go out with. Not everyone is like your dad, Scorpius - most people don't change, not deep down, no matter how much you want them to."

"Why didn't you tell me that before I asked her?" Scorpius snapped. He was starting to feel as though he'd gotten himself in way over his head, and his good mood had all but dissipated.

"Because I think you were right to ask her." Albus wasn't rising to the bait. "This matters to you, and I think your grandmother probably _will_ behave herself."

This was not quite the ringing vote of confidence Scorpius had been hoping for, but he supposed it was probably better than nothing.

That bit of unpleasantness aside, Scorpius did enjoy the rest of his visit with Albus - and James, who ended up sticking around for most of it. He left their flat as the sun was setting, however, despite an invitation to stay for dinner - he had to be at work early the next day, and he'd learned very quickly that a tired Healer was a careless Healer, and a careless Healer could cost lives.

He'd only had to be told that once, since the lesson had happened to come on a day when two Aurors who'd been on the wrong end of several very nasty curses had been rushed to the fourth floor in very serious condition. He hadn't known either of them, but the idea that one day the Aurors in critical condition could be - or, rather, almost certainly _would_ be - his best friend or his cousin had been very effective in making the lesson stick.

He woke up the next morning well before sunrise, and he was at work by quarter after six.

It had been eight months since he'd first stepped foot inside the hospital as an official Resident Healer, and in that time, he'd been pleased to find that his instincts when he'd been in school were good ones: he liked Healing every bit as much as his friends and cousins liked danger - and, more importantly, he was very good at it. Today, however, he was facing a conversation with his boss that made him more than a little uncomfortable; he knew it was going to be one of the more difficult conversations he'd had with her thus far.

He strode by the front desk with a quick nod to the welcome wizard sitting behind it; at this point, he knew all of the front-facing witches and wizards on a first name basis, but while he often stopped to chat for a couple minutes if it was quiet, he didn't have the energy to put a good face on today. His stomach was a bundle of nerves.

Scorpius made his way straight to Healer Deverill's office and rapped twice on the door, which was slightly ajar. After a moment, the plump, dark-haired witch who'd taken him under her wing opened it. "Oh, Scorpius - you're a little early, aren't you?"

He glanced past her to the unadorned wooden clock on the wall. "Er - maybe a little. I thought you told me to get here by 6:30."

She followed his gaze. The clock's minute hand had just edged past the five. "Oh, is it that time already?" She made a face and stepped back to usher him inside. "Sorry - I've been here since 4 filling out paperwork. I must have lost track of time."

"It's fine." He sat down in one of the mahogany chairs on the side of the desk nearer the door while she bustled around to sit in the significantly more comfortable chair behind her desk.

He must have looked as stiff and tense as he felt, because her face softened a little when she looked at him. "Oh, calm down. This isn't meant to be unpleasant - I just want to touch base and figure out where you are with deciding on a focus." She jerked her head at the armchair in the corner, where both she and Scorpius himself had spent many long hours pouring over charts, filling out paperwork, and keeping up to date on the most recent research in the field. "Come on. There's no reason for you to sit there - you're not in school anymore, and I haven't suddenly turned back into your professor."

Scorpius felt his face get a little hot. "Sorry," he said, circling around the desk to settle into the chair.

Rather than hire a designated, full-time professor for the sixth and seventh year Medical Magic classes, Hogwarts had arranged for experienced St. Mungo's Healers to come in on Mondays and Fridays to teach the N.E.W.T. classes. He'd been lucky enough to have Lisbeth Deverill, a high-ranking Healer in St. Mungo's administration who'd taught the class in his seventh year, take an interest in him and pull some strings when he'd started the previous summer to get him under her supervision.

He suspected that his father's generous donations to the hospital after Scorpius's fifth, sixth, and seventh years hadn't hurt either. Officially, no one was supposed to take things like that into account, but 500 galleons for an O and 250 galleons for an E really did add up to quite a lot of money.

Healer Deverill studied him. Her brown eyes, slightly obscured behind the smudged glass of thin spectacles, were critical but not unkind. "You're not usually this tense. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just…" He considered mentioning the conversation with Rose about his grandmother, but decided against it. He had opened up to his mentor a little in the past, but this didn't feel like the time to do so - and, even if it had, Scorpius was fairly certain that his discomfort had a lot more to do with the conversation they were about to have than anything else. He was usually pretty good at blocking out his personal life when he got to work. "I'm just a little stressed about this."

She sighed. "You shouldn't be, you know, but since you are, let's get it over with." She shuffled through the papers on her desk and extracted a roll of parchment. "You came to us with impressive N.E.W.T. marks," she said without glancing down at what she'd written, "and since you started here last July, you've shown an impressive capacity to think on your feet. I think you've got the capacity to excel in most of our departments - though please don't ask me to sign onto a focus in plants injuries and poisonings."

Scorpius let out a snort. He'd just barely scraped an E on his Herbology N.E.W.T., and that had been with copious amounts of help and bribery from Rose. His girlfriend knew him very, very well, and she'd known exactly what incentives would make the things she was drilling him on stick.

"Don't worry. I wasn't planning on it." He hesitated for a moment, and then said, "I'm kind of torn. I don't know whether I'd rather focus on spell damage or creature-induced injuries."

Her eyebrows rose a little. "You do realize that it would take an extraordinary situation for you to be assigned to friends or family members, right?"

He'd known she would recognize the personal motivation behind his words - he'd talked to her about it a little, but even if he hadn't, everyone knew about the Greengrasses - his cousin Johanna in particular had landed herself in St. Mungo's at least twice a year since she'd finished her Auror training seven years earlier - and since he'd convinced Rose and Albus to take the Medical Magic N.E.W.T. with him, Healer Deverill had gotten to know them both well enough to know where they were heading after Hogwarts.

And, as his cousin Noah had pointed out on more than one occasion, you'd have to be blind to see Scorpius in the same room as Rose and not realize that he was in love with her. His mentor had seen them in class together twice a week for almost a year - even if he hadn't explicitly said it, she'd have figured it out.

"I know. I just… if I'm helping the people they work with, I'm helping them, too."

Scorpius didn't add that he'd lapsed into more fantasies than it was prudent to admit to about getting so good at treating those particular injuries that he'd be assigned to them when they were brought in anyway. If he was that good at what he did, then he'd have a lot less to worry about.

He had a feeling that Healer Deverill could tell what direction his thoughts had headed in, but for the moment, she let it go. "And you're not sure which?"

Scorpius shook his head. "I know I didn't take Magizoology - I couldn't really get it into my schedule, with everything else I was taking - but -"

She cut him off. "Oh, Scorpius, _nobody_ here took Magizoology. We already require at least five N.E.W.T.s to so much as _start_ training here, and if you don't want to come in restricted to specific departments, you need to take six - which you did. If we only accepted people who took seven N.E.W.T.s and got an E or an O on all of them, we'd never get trainees."

"Oh. Right. And obviously I know about curses and dark magic."

She considered him. "Well, you've got another four months of residency before we assign you to a floor as a junior healer. We'll talk about it again in a couple months - I don't believe you've even done your rotation in creature injuries yet, have you?" He shook his head. "If you're still undecided after that, you _do_ have the option to complete a year or two as a junior Healer on each floor, which will allow you to practice as a senior Healer on either."

He nodded. Scorpius wasn't entirely sure he wanted to double the amount of time it would take him to become a senior Healer, but it was good to know it was an option.

_**I'd love feedback on this chapter, if you have the time - I'm working on the next one now, so it'd be really helpful, even if it's just "Good job." Thanks for reading!**_


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